The hipster takeover of ale’s correct serving temperature

Recently I was accused of being a beer snob and it was implied that I’m dinosaur who doesn’t embrace change. This is complete FAKE NEWS. The truth is I love a cold beer - whether it’s lager or ale. I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said ‘beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy’. Nowhere in that statement did he specify temperature. 

One evening down the pub I was merely pointing out that, back in the day, real ale (flat beer which is pulled from a cask using a pump as opposed to fizzy yellow stuff which is poured from a keg using a tap) tended to be served at roughly room temperature, whereas these days it tends to be served colder (at around 10-12 degrees C). I think it was assumed that, because I was pointing out this fact, I was therefore yearning for the bygone days of warm beers served in unclean glasses in pubs which had Thin Lizzy playing out of their pork-scratching-grease covered duke boxes... Though there is a certain romance to all of that, I believe it is right that we have generally moved on. There are arguments to be made about how serving a flavoursome ale at too cold a temperature runs the risk of masking its flavours and aromas, thus prohibiting it from reaching its full potential. To these arguments I am sympathetic. However, I don’t believe the issue is as widespread as the title of this blog post makes out.

Even if ale’s serving temperature has undergone a shift and become colder, it hasn’t been sufficient to compromise the integrity of most beers, at least, not in my experience. What disgusts me more than the tragedy of an ale being served slightly too cold, however, is the idea of drinking ‘5 cans of warm lager’ (Baxter Dury review, paragraph 2). Benjamin Franklin might’ve revised his wise words about beer had he been around during the emergence of lager or cans, especially warm ones. 

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